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  • Talking about a little miscommunication,

  • I want to go over some real basic cat body language

  • that you probably said, oh he means this.

  • And it is completely in left field.

  • The first one, Halloween cat, right?

  • You've seen it before.

  • Cat with arched back, tail up in the air, and making themselves

  • totally puffed up.

  • And we interpret that as aggression.

  • In reality what it is, is pretty much the opposite.

  • It's fear.

  • The cat will blow up, sort of tough,

  • in order to make themselves appear bigger, because they're

  • afraid of something that just happened.

  • The second one, the old, cat laying on his or her back,

  • right?

  • Now, when you see your dog lay on his or her back,

  • you go in for the tummy rub.

  • Those of you who have reached in to rub your cat's belly,

  • you get bit or scratched.

  • I call this the cat hug, because what they're doing

  • is exposing the most vulnerable part of themselves,

  • their midline.

  • If you are facing a potential predator,

  • this is that place that you do not want exposed, right?

  • When a human hugs another human, we

  • are exposing our midline to that other person.

  • It is a mutual show of risk-taking and emotional

  • trust.

  • Cats do the same thing by showing you that.

  • That does not mean, come on in for a belly rub.

  • Now let's talk about the big one, the wagging tail.

  • Folks are looking at their cat through dog-colored glasses

  • and are saying, this means my cat is happy.

  • As a matter of fact, they are usually saying the opposite.

  • Now, cats will start to get worked up,

  • start to get a little agitated to static in the environment

  • by absorbing that energy.

  • It's almost like it comes in this way,

  • and then it gets stuck in the tail.

  • And then, how am I supposed to get this energy out of my body,

  • you know?

  • And then, it starts getting worse, right?

  • And then by the time they are ready to pounce

  • on you or anybody, or explode with their staticky

  • frustration, it is like this.

  • We talked in the past about the miscommunication

  • that is inherent with cat overstimulation aggression.

  • So that is, you're sitting there petting the cat-- pet,

  • pet, pet, pet, pet.

  • Suddenly, chomp.

  • You get bit.

  • The other one we talked about a little bit was play aggression.

  • Your ankles get attacked, but why?

  • Because your cat wants to play and is not getting that

  • play attention.

  • We've even talked about how your cat can pee on the couch,

  • for instance.

  • You're like, why do you hate me?

  • An insecure cat will pee on something

  • to mingle their scent with yours, as if to say,

  • you and me, buddy, we're compadres, right?

  • So whether it is Halloween cat, whether it is the cat hug

  • --the belly rub that we go in for, which we

  • shouldn't-- whether it is the play aggression attack,

  • the overstimulation aggression attack,

  • whether it is the wagging tail, these are all ways that we can

  • take off the dog-colored glasses,

  • take off the human-colored glasses.

  • Look at your cat through cat-colored glasses,

  • their motivations, what their reality is, and you'll

  • spend a lot less time misconstruing, getting

  • angry, projecting, doing all those dangerous things

  • that we tend to do more with cats than dogs

  • for sure, but pretty much anybody else.

  • So that's it for today, folks.

  • You can find me where you find anybody these days,

  • whether it's on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

  • The Animalist Network has me in spades

  • these days, so watch Animalist.

  • And also, don't forget, make some comments down below,

  • subscribe to my feed.

  • You'll find out what's going on, like for instance, the Google

  • Hangout that is coming up very soon now.

  • We're going to be talking, more specifically than not,

  • about litter box issues.

  • But you know me, we're going to go all over the map.

  • All right folks, until the next time

  • we speak, all light, all love, all mojo to you.

  • Love you.

  • THEME SONG: You're a bad cat.

  • I'm not a bad cat.

  • You're a bad cat.

  • I'm not a bad cat.

  • You're a bad cat.

  • I'm just misunderstood.

  • Meow.

Talking about a little miscommunication,

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